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It is now less than two months until Vice President Kamala Harris will go head-to-head with Donald Trump for the presidential spot, after replacing President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket in July.
Fresh polls suggest that Harris may be sweeping up elusive Independent voters; though races in the swing states are still too close to call, with Harris and Trump neck-in-neck in Pennsylvania.
So how will Harris actually fare against Trump in November?
Harris has a 3.1-point lead over Trump in the latest average of national polls, collated by FiveThirtyEight. On average, Harris has been marginally ahead of Trump in national polls.
In a pivotal shift, Harris also leads Trump by +7.7 per cent among Independent voters, according to a new poll from Emerson College (up to September 4). This is compared to a +2 point for Harris among all voters.
Capturing the independent vote will be crucial for either Harris or Trump to take the lead in this election. This is also the most likely group to vote for a third-party candidate, though with RFK Jr. out of the race, this has dwindled to just 4 per cent of independents.
The nationwide Emerson College poll has 49.5 per cent of Independents saying they would vote for Harris, compared to 41.8 per cent for Trump.
This is a substantial jump from the same poll one month ago, which showed Harris just inching ahead of Trump (46 per cent to 45 per cent) among Independent voters.
However, 5 per cent of Independent voters say they are still undecided; and the elusive voter group are difficult to pin down, with higher variation between polls and regions than other demographics. Nonetheless, Harris can be credited with mobilising the non-partisan voter base, whose support is a far cry from Trump’s lead before Biden dropped out.
Battling for the swing states
The race for the battleground states is still on, according to a fresh set of CNN polls published September 4 (data up to August 29).
The polls show that Harris is leading by +5 points in Michigan, and +6 points in Wisconsin.
Meanwhile, Trump has a +5 point lead in Arizona, a state which has voted Republican in every presidential election since the 1950s — except 2020, when Biden won the state by 0.3 percent.
Yet in Georgia, Nevada, and Pennsylvania, the poll has Harris leading by 1 point or less; a toss-up between the two candidates.
In Pennsylvania, the poll shows Harris and Trump locked in a tie at 47 percent and 47 percent. The state has been a near-weekly stopping point for both parties, and will host the first Trump-Harris debate on September 10.
Trump stopped in the state on Wednesday for a Fox News event, while Democratic VP candidate Walz put in face time at a local Pennsylvania farmers’ market.
Overall, battleground polls have consistently shown that Harris has picked up momentum from her predecessor’s trailing support, and is on-track to lead Trump in some states.
Are voters convinced?
A separate ABC News/Ipsos poll up to August 27 shows that the American public thinks that Harris is doing a better job on her campaign overall, while Trump is in the red.
The poll also suggests that a third of Trump supporters (31 percent) have reservations about their choice.
This is nearly double the amount of people who support Harris with reservations (18 percent).
It seems Harris has inspired more devotion from Democrat supporters, as the same poll in July found that 34 percent of Biden supporters had reservations about his candidacy.
In July, just 34 percent of Biden voters strongly supported his candidacy, compared to 60 percent who now strongly support Harris.
However, one in five Harris voters are acting mainly out of dislike for other candidates; while just 9 percent of Trump supporters feel the same.
While the DNC from August 19 to 22 made little dent in the overall Harris-Trump split, the gender divide between the two candidates’ support continued to grow.
The number of women supporting Harris increased by +3 points from pre-convention numbers, to 54 percent, while just 41 percent of women surveyed support Trump.
However, Trump also received a boost of +5 points among men in this period; with 51 percent of men supporting the Republican candidate.
Demographics
An Activote poll shows that Trump’s key supporters remain male voters, the 65+, and white voters with no college education.
However, Harris and Trump are tied in the 50-64 age group in this poll, which previously leaned Trump.
Harris polls best with young voters, female voters, and Black voters, among whom Harris has a +52 point lead.
Meanwhile, Trump has a +6 point lead with Latino voters.
While Trump is taking home rural voters, at 63 percent, Harris leads among both urban-resident (58 percent) and suburban voters (56 percent).
Suburban voters chose Trump over Hilary Clinton in 2016, while in 2020, Biden flipped the lead for Democrats.
